This morning, after work, I got the chance to try to tackle the Nashua River Rail Trail. This was the un-friendlest rail trail that i have ever been on, including the Minuet Man! I started out at it’s far northern end, in Nashua itself. There is a large parking area. A path leads a short distance to the east where there is a small pond. Dirt paths go off from there. There are no water, vending or sanitary facilities here and only a very few trash cans. The area is kept neat and clean though and is in good repair. The path itself is both less than I expected and more.
I tend to be disappointed in the “big” bike paths. I guess that maybe they have been around long enough for the vegetation to grow back in close or perhaps they just didn’t design them to we open and airy “back then”. In any event, I found the path to be narrow and slightly over-grown. For the most part the trail is well maintinaed and clean. There are a few bumpy bits and one or two areas where significant amounts of dirt has come onto the trail. It is not arrow-straight as some of the other trails are. Sadly, there isn’t a lot of interesting scenery along the path but neither is there a lot of Urban Blight os industrialization visible from the path. There are benches and places to reast. It crosses throught down-town Pepperhil and there is a convenience store and an ice cream shop there, among other things. One enterprising abutter has installed a couple of lawn chairs and a coke machine on his property facing the trail!
The other trail users were a varied lot. By far the number one largest group that I saw on this week day morning was older people on hybrid bikes! There were a few roadies, me being one of them today. I saw a guy “traing” as hard as he could on his dual-suspension MTB. He was spinning quite fast and had a very harsh look of concentration on his face. He was concentrating so hard, in fact, that he did not even respond to my cheery hello as I passed him on the path going down and going back up it. In fact, the vast majority of the people that I passed on this path refused to aknowledge my greeting or even manke eye contact! Not the friendly, family, comunity feel that I tend to expect on bike paths! Two people stod out as “friendly”. The middle aged guy on the “fixie” and, more importantly, the young blond girl riding with her friend. Other than that. a couple of grunted “hello”s was the best that I could get out of any of my fellow Trail Travelers.
All in all it was an enjoyable morning though. I did not do the whole trail as I wanted to save some “steam” for riding with my family laer on but I think next time I’ll go all the way down and back. I will continue to ride cheery, no mater what.
I tend to be disappointed in the “big” bike paths. I guess that maybe they have been around long enough for the vegetation to grow back in close or perhaps they just didn’t design them to we open and airy “back then”. In any event, I found the path to be narrow and slightly over-grown. For the most part the trail is well maintinaed and clean. There are a few bumpy bits and one or two areas where significant amounts of dirt has come onto the trail. It is not arrow-straight as some of the other trails are. Sadly, there isn’t a lot of interesting scenery along the path but neither is there a lot of Urban Blight os industrialization visible from the path. There are benches and places to reast. It crosses throught down-town Pepperhil and there is a convenience store and an ice cream shop there, among other things. One enterprising abutter has installed a couple of lawn chairs and a coke machine on his property facing the trail!
The other trail users were a varied lot. By far the number one largest group that I saw on this week day morning was older people on hybrid bikes! There were a few roadies, me being one of them today. I saw a guy “traing” as hard as he could on his dual-suspension MTB. He was spinning quite fast and had a very harsh look of concentration on his face. He was concentrating so hard, in fact, that he did not even respond to my cheery hello as I passed him on the path going down and going back up it. In fact, the vast majority of the people that I passed on this path refused to aknowledge my greeting or even manke eye contact! Not the friendly, family, comunity feel that I tend to expect on bike paths! Two people stod out as “friendly”. The middle aged guy on the “fixie” and, more importantly, the young blond girl riding with her friend. Other than that. a couple of grunted “hello”s was the best that I could get out of any of my fellow Trail Travelers.
All in all it was an enjoyable morning though. I did not do the whole trail as I wanted to save some “steam” for riding with my family laer on but I think next time I’ll go all the way down and back. I will continue to ride cheery, no mater what.
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